Baby&#39;s garment



Oct. 23, 1934.

B s. ALSOP BABYS GARMEN'I ct. 23, 1934. a s ALSQ 1,977,64

BABYS GARMENT Filed Dec. 51. 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR BERTHYA S. AL.SOP

0d. 23, 1934. B. s. ALSOP 1,977,604

BABY s GARMENT Fled Dec. 31. 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 IIHIHIII.

INVENTOR BER THA S. Y

Patented Qct. 23, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BABYS GARMEN'I Bertha s. Alsop, Scrsdale, N. Y. Application December 31, 1932, Serial No. 649.688

8 Claims. (01. 128-284) My invention is intended to provide a garment which at the same time serves as an outer garment and a helder for an absorbent pad or diaper.

For that purpose I provide a siinple, inexpensive main cloth portion or body having shoulder straps and a waterproof pocket portion secured to the inne r surface of the body portion and adapted to held a pad or folded dieper. In order that the garment, and particularly the pocket and pad, sha1l fit snugiy I provide elastic strip portions along the sides of the pocket to maintan tension around the inside of the legs. The garment is also held in place by connecting together legencircling portions at the sides of the body.

Fig. 1 is a view of one form of garment spread out showing the upper or inside surface with an inserted pad.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the garment in the position in which it is worn.

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on the plane of the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, on a larger scale.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view showing a part of one of the pad holding pockets.

Fig. 5 is an inside face view showing a modification.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view on the plane of the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 6a is a transverse sectional view of the pocket.

Fig. 7 is an inside face view showing another modification.

Fig. 8 is an inside face view showing the parts of the garment of Fig. 7.

In the form shown in Figs. 1 to 4 the body 10 of the garment is formed of any suitable weven or knitted cloth with straps 11 secured to the rear edge 12 and a front extension 13 having fastening devices 14 to which the ends of the shoulder straps may be attached. The side edges 15 are concaved and shaped to fit around the legs.

The extreme ends of the curved sides are provided with fastening devices such as tapes 16 which may be run as drawstrings in the side binding strips so as to facilitate astening the sides snugly around the legs.

The portions 12 and 17 constitute waistband portions which may be provided at their ends with suitable fastening devices such as buttons 18 and button holes 19. One or both of the bands 12 and 17 may be in whoie or in part elastic so that the garment will fit more snugly around the waist. The extension portion 13 at the front extends upwardly to cover the abdomen. The inclined edges 20 and 21 may overlap at the hips.

A waterproof layer 22 formed, for instance, of oi1ed silk or thin elastic rubber sheeting is secured to the central portion of the body at its inner fase and its ends 23 turned inwardly te form end pockets to receive the ends.of the foldcd dieper er pad 24. These end portions may be reinforced by a strip of cloth 25 having a folded portion 26 and stitched at 27 in such a marmer as to avoid as far as possible any open 01 stitched seam in the waterproof fabric where it is likely te leak.

Elastic tapes or strips 28 are stitched or otherwise suitably secured to the cloth body 10 substantially in line with the points of conneotion of the shoulder straps. As the body or foundation fabric of the garment has but little elasticity, these elastic tapes 28 are appiied onder considerable tension so that they gather or contract the material longitudinally and thus When the garment is in p1ace the fabric is held under tension by the shoulder straps. This produces a pocket 29 as shown in Fig. 3, in which pocket the pad is held. It will thus be seen that the elastic strips 28 in effect form the side edges of the pad-receiving pocket so as to held the pad from Iateral displacement. The garment itself, of course, is held laterally by the side edges 15 and the drawstrings 16 or the leg-encircling devices. The front and rear edges of the garment are held securely by the shoulder straps 11 so that the pad can not slip materially in any direction.

It will be noted that only a. very small part of the tvaterproofxgortion of the garment comes in contact with the skin.

It will also be seenthat this garment requires no pins and no fastening devices for the pad. other than the means of conneotion of the various parts of the garment as a whole. The outer part of the garment may be made of any suitable material and entirely conceals the absorbent pad.

In the form shown in Fig. 5 the pad-holding pocket 30 is formed of waterproof material and has elastic strips 31 embodied in the edges. The opposite ends 32 and 33 of the pocket member are provided with snap fasteners adapted to engage the corresponding fasteners 34 and 35 attached to the rear edge 36 and the front band portion 37 of the garment.

It will be seen that the pocket member is eentracted by the elastic strips 31 so that when detached as shown in Fig. 5 it is much shorter than the distance between the band portions 36 and 37 of the garment. When both ends of the pocket member are secured in place, of course, it leaves the center of the fabric portion of the garment 33 baggy until the shoulder straps 39 are fastened to anchorage portions 40, when the garment will be drawn into a snug fit.

In this form of device obviously the waterproof pocket member can be detached and suitably cleaned by itself and the body of the garment may be cleaned by itself, for instance, in boiling water without danger of destroying the rubber or other waterproof material of the pocket member.

It will be seen that by such a construction the pocket member may be made interchangeable with various body or foundation members. In this form of construction the end strips 41 of the pocket member may be made of material which is not waterproof if desired.

In the construction shown in Figs. 7 and8 the foundation part 10' is of somewhat different design and the waterproof portion 22' is formed of elastic rubber which is foreshortened or gathered in eiect by the tension of the elastic strips 28' which are secured to the body portion. The end portions 23' of waterproof material are folded over and stitched to a cover piece 26. While it is preferred that the shoulder straps shall be fastened to the back band 12, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and detachably connected to the front part of the garment for convenience in putting on the garment, the straps 11 may be permanently fastened to the front portion 13 and detachably connected to anchorage devices 14 at the rear i desired.

It should be understood that other changes and modifications might be made in the details of construction without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

The garment can of course be worn with or without other garments. The lower part can be secured to a waist if desired but means should be provided for holding the body of the garment up snugly so that the elastic strip portions such as 28 and 31 will be placed in tension and. hold the absorbent pad securely in place,

I claim:

1. A childs garment comprising a substantially flat body portion having front and rear waist band portions and leg-encircling side portions with side fasteners, a pad-holding member which is elastic longitudinally and has padholding pockets at its ends detachably secured to the body portion, the length of said member when contracted being materially less than the length of the body member between the points of attachment of said member so that when the garment is worn said member will be under tension from front to rear while the center of the body portion is left free and the sides of the garment are held in place by the leg-encircling portions.

2. A childs garment comprising a body portion having front and rear waist band portions and concave side edges with fasteningdevices for securing the edges around the legs, a waterproof central lining, elastic:- tapes secured to the front and rear portion of the body between the lining and the body for gathering the body to form a pad receiving pocket the side edges of the garment extending laterally beyond the elastictapes and means for holding up the garment so as to maintain the elastic tapes in tension independently of the side edge 'fastening device.

3. A cililds garment comprising a. body portion having waist band portions at the front and rear and leg-encircling portions at the sides with fasteners, a waterproof lining for the central portion, two strips of elastic spaced apart from each other laterally and extending longitudinally of the garment for gathering the body portion and forming between the strips an elongated padreceiving recess the side edges of the garment extending laterally beyond the elastic tapes, pockets between the ends of the strips for holding the ends of a pad and means for holding up the garment so as to maintain the elastic tapes intension independently of the side edge tastening devices.

4. A babys garment comprising a flat body portion having front and rear waist band portions with supporting straps, leg er1circling side edges and a pad holding pocket of waterproof material having its ends secured to the body portion near the waist band portions and free from connection in the center, the edges of said pocket being elastic longitudinally.

5. A babys garment comprising a body portion having integral waistband portions at opposite ends with upper and lower fastening devices, a pad-receiving pocket in the central part of each end of the body portion, an elastic strip secured to the body portion on each side of its longitudinal center line and connecting the respective pockets to gather the body portion so that it will be under tension between the pockets and beneath the crotch when the garment is worn, said body portion having leg-encrcling portions extending laterally beyond the elastic strips and connecting the ends of the waistband portions.

6. A babys garment comprising a one-piece body portion much wider at the ends than in the center, the ends constituting front and rear waistband portions having fastening devices on the corners, and longitudinal elastic tapes secured to the body portion on opposite sides of the center and defining the sides of a longitudinal recess for a pad, the side edges of the body portion extending laterally beyond the elastic tapes to form leg-encircling portions extending from one waistband portion to the other.

7. A babys garment comprising a substantially flat body portion with front and rear waistband portions having upper and lower fastei2ing devices, elastic tapes extending longitudinally of the body portion on opposite sides of the center and contracting the central part of the body portion longitudinally, the waistband portions hav ing elastic members contracting the ends of the central part of the body portion transversely to form a recess for receiving an absorbent pad, said body having out-out side edges extending laterally beyond the longitudinal tapes to form leg-encircling portions connecting the waistband portions.

8. A babys garment comprising a body portion having wide ends constituting front and rear waistband portions with fastening devices at the corners, elastic tapes secured to the body portion on opposite sides of the longitudinal center to gather the body portion and form the side niargins of a pad-receiving recess extendng longitudinally of the body portion beneath the crotch, a pocket for retaining at least one end of the pad between the elastic tapes and legencircling portions extending laterally beyond the elastic tapes and between the front and rear waistband portions.

BERTHA S. ALSOP. 

